Having just missed one hundred books in the first year of The Book Challenge, in 2010, I made the full tonne. Still reading, but without the challenge, take a look at the reviews for the books that I have read this year.

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Friday, 28 December 2012

Book 41 - Cirque du Freak

Book - Cirque du Freak

Author - Darren Shan

Year - 2000

Genre - Children's Fantasy

Pages - 192

Another book that came about due to it being covered at school (prepare yourself for plenty of these over the next, I don't know, forty years). This is the first in a series about the young Darren who visits a freak show with his friend Steve. Darren is a huge fan of spiders and is drawn to the strange spider act in the show. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone - I try pretty hard not to in these blogs - and it is pretty tough, as this entire book is pretty much a set up for the series of nine books, but a cursory look at the titles of them should tell you that this is a vampire series.Vampires are not really my thing. I am not a fan of gothic fiction particularly, and even when looking at modern books about vampires, there is a tendency to stray towards that kind of a feel. It is difficult to explain why I have difficulty summoning up much enthusiasm about such a specific branch - I have no problem with most other fantastical creature types - but it simply remains a fact that they are not my cup of tea. I tend to be able to appreciate them however, and books like Fevre Dream I have found very good (not Twilight though. Never Twilight.)So I feel happy enough to say that this is a good book. It is accessible to younger readers, but the subject is mature enough for teens as well. I have a feeling that the story will build very nicely, and the characters are set well in this first book. However, I didn't particularly enjoy it myself. As it is well written, I didn't hate it, but I just cannot summon up that love for this kind of thing to enjoy myself enough.6/10